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Monte Carlo is a class of algorithms, just like FFT isn't a code or a specific algorithm but a class of algorithms. Is "worthwhile science" a jab at nuclear ap
by hchz 6y ago
Monte Carlo is a class of algorithms, just like FFT isn't a code or a specific algorithm but a class of algorithms.
Is "worthwhile science" a jab at nuclear applications?
MC was developed by and used for the Manhattan Project - almost the entire computer architecture we are using to communicate resulted from military research related to strategy concerning weapons that could not have been made without MC, and this remade not only our relationship with technology but the geopolitics of the entire world.
I would say that, more broadly, the omission is the lack of any mention of the use of random sampling, including MC and random methods in machine learning.
- whatshisface 6y agoIt's subjective, but the idea behind monte carlo seems so obvious that I can hardly imagine it being called an invention.
- jjoonathan 6y agoAlmost all monte carlo production code is MCMC of some form and the idea of constructing a markov chain with a certain stationary distribution by generating and accepting/rejecting candidate jumps is far from trivial.